The cost of a light rail system for Wellington has skyrocketed to nearly a billion dollars, with Mayor Celia Wade-Brown now conceding it looks unrealistic in the near future.

A detailed business case for light rail between Wellington Railway Station and Kilbirnie was made public for the first time today.

It put the cost of building the network at $940 million, largely because it would require its own tunnel through Mt Victoria.

This is the problem with the Greens. They never let reality get in the way of their ideas.

Rational people would say sure we’d love light rail but the cost is unaffordable. Their fantasy would cost $10,000 per household.

Even worse the light rail proposal would produce very low level of benefits, compared to a bus rapid transit system. The benefit cost ratio for light rail is a minuscule 0.05 or a benefit of $1 for every $20 spent.

This is what the Greens are demanding for Wellington. Spend $1 billion to get a benefit of $50 million. Per household that is take $10,000 per household and get a benefit of $500 back!

jp_1983

davidp

I just don’t understand how light rail would work in Wellington. The main bus route through the city has several sharp bends that don’t look easy for light rail to navigate. Are the Greens going to demolish buildings in their way? Also the bus system is already good. What problem are they trying to solve for the billion dollar expenditure?

Rich Prick

Nick R

davidp – obviously you don’t understand. Light rail is Good. If you support light rail, you are a Good Person. If we have light rail, global warming will stop, poverty will vanish and there will be social justice for all. Common sense.

Surely these considerations outweigh any trifling concerns about cost, the fact that there is nowhere to put light rail lines, and that light rail would be somewhat less good than buses when it comes to the trivial work of actually moving people people about the city. Only the most blinkered neo-liberal would oppose light rail on such grounds.

Mobile Michael

Wellington used to have a tram service so it’s feasible to reinstate it as light rail. Although it would mean losing a fair amount of road space. Just because it’s technically feasible doesn’t mean having to ignore economic reality.

While the Greens are willing to promote silly ideas they should remember the experience of the Hutt 2020 Labour Party ticket during the 2010 local body elections – they had a grandiose scheme of a National Art Gallery and National Convention Centre. Their Mayoral Candidate came third, and not a single councillor from their ticket was elected.

They blamed a letter writing campaign by opponents – the fact the letter writers kept highlighting their loony policy had nothing to do with it (in their opinion).

“This begs the question: How many Kapiti residents will be prepared to commute daily down a stretch of motorway that is far steeper and twice as long as the Ngauranga Gorge, especially when there is a pleasant, low-lying alternative coastal route, and when they will probably have to pay a toll for the privilege of driving on this treacherous stretch of road?”

Idiot. It will not steeper than Ngauranga Gorge, and the “pleasant..coastal route” is a dangerous congested road.

and this clanger:

“Certainly large trucks won’t want to use the route….as it will be way too steep for them.”

marquess

Marquess, you really have a problem with Transmission Gully don’t you?
Are you living in the 19th century?

If it was tolled and no public money was used to fund it, I would have zero problem with it. Unfortunately I live in a country where money isn’t free and we have projects in the pipeline that actually generate more than they cost

davidp

NickR>the fact that there is nowhere to put light rail lines, and that light rail would be somewhat less good than buses when it comes to the trivial work of actually moving people people about the city

I love the trams in Melbourne, especially taking one to St Kilda at the weekend to visit the beach. But there is a difference between St Kilda Road which is a long straight wide boulevard, and routing a tram around Wellington’s narrow streets. I’m not sure that as a Wellington pedestrian I want to share the inner city with tram sized vehicles. I also presume that the Greens are not going to terminate all the suburban buses at the CBD edge and transfer passengers to trams, so I have trouble imagining a combined tram and busway with the light rail overhead clutter. Surely the queue of buses would just slow down the trams to the same speed, meaning that the trams would be just big buses on rails?

The alternative would be to run trams along the Jervois Quay route. But that loses half its passenger catchment to the sea, while making a much worst service for people working on The Terrace. So we’re spending a billion dollars for a worse service when there is a perfectly good bus service already that isn’t near capacity.

srylands

“If it [Transmission Gully] was tolled and no public money was used to fund it, I would have zero problem with it. Unfortunately I live in a country where money isn’t free and we have projects in the pipeline that actually generate more than they cost.”
_______________

I agree with you in-principle. But three points:

1. I would be happy for all highways to be privately owned, operated, and constructed and to pay the owners of these directly to use them. But it is the parties of the left that generally oppose such a model.

2. Conventional BCR analysis can understate the network and macroeconomic benefits of transport projects, especially where a nation has under-invested in the past. The UK Eddington report was seminal on these issues:

3. Because of the Left’s opposition to (1) above, we get total madness like mayor Celia advocating the public funding of the Wellington airport runway, an insane waste of money that will benefit nobody except Infratil. If Steven Joyce was advocating this, The Standard would be in full flight against it. I have seen nobody from the Left or the Greens bring Celia’s madness to task.

If I was put in charge of designing light rail (for Akl or Wlg or anywhere) the system would involve rails running on precast concrete track bed / bridge units, elevated about 5m up on 400 diameter octagonal precast poles, banged in down the centreline of existing 4-lane main arterial roads. Above the road traffic, above any overhead services, nice and slim so it doesn’t blot out the sun, any precast yard could fabricate all of the components, perfect.

(The presumption being that the busy roads are already showing you clearly where the main demand for passenger seats is.)

There would be standardised stations/stops all along the route consisting of a roadside stair with an electric ticket card reader turnstyle controlling access. Swipe your card, climb the stairs, wait in the bus shelter provided for the next tram to come along.

I have no idea what all of this would cost. But it would be a good system! 😛

Liberty

“Cheaper bus fares”
Bus fares in the Cities. Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland are already cheap as chips.
Comparing the true cost of using a car. Plus the cost of parking would be far dearer than
taking the bus.
So why don’t more people use the bus. It’s not the cost. As bus travel is cheap.
Maybe they have no idea how to use the bus?
What route? How do I get on to the bus? How do I get off at the right stop?
I suspect for a lot of people it is more of a concern than the cost of a ticket.

greenjacket

What on earth is it with the obsession on the Left with trains?
Have they not outgrown their childhoods or are they all trainspotters? If I was 6 years old again, I’d vote for trains (and cowboys and lego and cartoons) – but as a basis for policy, it is ridiculous.

Nick R

WineOh

I must be missing something fundamental- what is the benefit of “light rail” over buses? I can only see downsides- no flexibility in the case of breakdown or obstruction along with expensive single-use infrastructure.

artemisia

Electric buses. NZ company Infratil has gone public to say that diesel buses will be well on the way out within 5 years. That’s the company working with Wrightspeed in the US to convert Welly trolley buses to electric, and is working on converting diesel buses as well.